Op-Ed: Monkey trafficking from Mauritius for money

Despite repeated reports of cruel treatment of primates at some research facilities in the US, wild monkeys are reportedly being transported into US research facilities from abroad, raising questions about the ethical treatment of research animals.

In our corporate world today, money is the cancer eating away humanity, taking its toll on life. Primates are no exception and the cruel trade of catching primates and transporting them to medical research facilities is a constant example. The latest call by animal rights activists to stop the transportation of monkeys from Mauritius to Texas, US, is another case in this regard.

Reported on the website Negotiation Is Over, these monkeys are said to have been kidnapped in Mauritius for transporting to the Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories (SNBL) facility, the headquarters of which in Washington were just recently investigated for severe cruelty to the monkeys held there for drug testing. The latest call for helping stop primate-trafficking into the US claims that the shipment of kidnapped monkeys is going to be transported to SNBL’s Texas facility by a trucking company called Troy Transport. The website has called on its readers to all the responsible person at the transport company and demand of him not to transport the animals to the facility where they are likely to be tortured.

Last year in March, Smash HLS reported a managerial worker at the Bioculutre telling that it had been agreed upon by all primate breeding companies that they would not trap primates from the wild for breeding farms, and this agreement actually came in 2009. Yet, in 2012, the news of the secret transport of kidnapped wild monkeys for market-driven research is enough to send horrors of the ways of modern pharmaceutical industry. Our evolutionary kin, related to us by blood and habit, are ripped from the comfort of their natural world and enslaved, tortured, and subject to cruel treatment simply because the drug market has to be filled—drugs that are usually little more in scientific efficacy than inert matter.

Whether this blood trade will end depends on people’s power to stand up for protecting their primate population. Hopefully, media won’t miss covering this horror that won’t stop until taken notice of by the international community. It’s the 21st century, and one must not be ignorant of the fact that primates feel the emotional pain as we do when subject to torture. There is simply no reason to victimize monkeys, or any animals for that matter, for it goes against humanity, in both evolutionary and ethical sense.

Update:Negotiation Is Over Has just reported that Air France has cancelled the intended shipment of kidnapped monkeys from Mauritius. This is a major victory for the activists from around the world who raised voice against the cruel plan of monkey trafficking. The movers of the activism against the shipment are thankful to all who spoke up for our primate fellows, who can now hope to be safe from the impending distress.

This opinion article was written by an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not necessarily intended to reflect those of DigitalJournal.com